'WILSON': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
A comedy-drama, based on the 2010 graphic novel (of the same name) by Daniel Clowes (who also wrote the screenplay). The film was directed by Craig Johnson, who also helmed the 2014 indie hit 'THE SKELETON TWINS', and it stars Woody Harrelson (in the title role). The movie tells the story of a lonely, neurotic and extremely honest middle-aged man, named Wilson, who goes looking for his teenage daughter, after just discovering he had one. Laura Dern, Judy Greer and Isabella Amara also costar in the movie. It's received a limited indie theatrical release at the Box Office, and it's gotten mostly mediocre reviews from critics. I also found the film to be far from perfect, but it's also at least somewhat entertaining and insightful.
Wilson (Harrelson) is a lonely middle-aged man, who's lived alone most of his life. He's neurotic, and he's also uncomfortably open, and honest, with almost everyone he meets; which causes most people to distance themselves from him. Wilson was briefly married, to another mentally unstable, and now drug addicted, woman named Pippi (Dern). Pippi and Wilson conceived a child together, years earlier, but Wilson was told the baby was aborted. When he finds out the child was born, and she's now living with adoptive parents nearby, he feels the obsessive need to meet her (Amara).
I've never read the graphic novel that the film is based on, but I did enjoy the quirky 2001 cult classic 'GHOST WORLD'; which Clowes also wrote the screenplay to (and the comic book it was based on). I do really like the Wilson character though, and I can really relate to him in many ways (but definitely not in every way). I think Harrelson does an outstanding job portraying him too, and the movie is quite involving because of it. It's a little too unbalanced though, to highly recommend it; it's just way too dark at times, in comparison to it's otherwise upbeat nature.
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